My Kitchen Mood Board

Let's just pretend we don't still have an asbestos problem in our basement and move on to more fun topics - KITCHEN! This is a close to a mood board as I'm getting, since I don't really do those. So here's how it is shaping up.

Despite the strong outpouring of support for our previous choice of Peppercorn White, I couldn't leave well enough alone and commit. So we went to a countertop supply center to have a look around. There was no shortage of stuff to look at:

We even got to dress up in hot pink hard hats, because this was a factory where they were actually lifting, moving, and cutting stone. OK, so they also had yellow hats, but where's the fun in that?

When I saw it, I knew it was love:

76, Rolling Fog. Definitely more my style. Here's a big view of Peppercorn White, for comparison, number 15:

As I feared, the larger sample looked so much busier than I wanted. I feel like this was the same sensation I experienced after sampling a bunch of greens in the nursery only to paint it a color that turned out to be incredibly LOUD! We took home some more samples (I briefly considered taking home enough samples to make a coaster set, only to realize the edges were probably too sharp to be considered child-safe). Rolling Fog is all the way on the right and Peppercorn White is the top left. The middle row is Mara Blanca, also a choice that we liked, but a tad too boring.

And so, with that, we committed whole-heartedly. And now, onto other choices we've made for the kitchen. We solved the issue on making our backsplash interesting without being *too* interesting by choosing a subway tile style with some subtle texture, Highland Park by MSI (the same people who make our quartz counter) in whisper white. And again, for something a little interesting, we've asked our tile installer to put them together like this - hopefully it works out well:

We're still undecided on our dining room accent light, mostly because D and I seem to have conflicting opinions. He like the kind of hanging pendants with an old-fashioned-looking lightbulb with exposed filament (they're all LEDs by now, so it's totally fake). I like elegant chandeliers, which, admittedly, might look out of place with our decor. I'm willing to compromise with pendants that use textured glass (I suggested mercury glass, but D wasn't a fan). So here are the current contenders, in order from his preference to mine (literally - our choices run exactly opposite each other):

West Elm Sculptural Glass

Pottery Barn McCarthy

Pottery Barn Paxton

Pottery Barn Arden Crystal Chandelier

For knobs and pulls, we're using some pretty standard looking brushed nickel ones from Home Depot. We still have to commit to a paint color but we're going to go with some very similar to what we have now, so if we don't get out to pick up some paint swatches, we'll just have the painter color-match it.

And with that, we're off! First payment paid and first day of work scheduled for Friday!